Monday, 12 October 2015

Last 9th of October of 2015, our colleague Andnet Bayleyegn graduated
after defending with great distinction (très honorable) his thesis in Montpellier, France.

During three years Andnet developed his PhD project between Montpellier Supagro
(France) and University of Catania (Italy) in collaboration with the
international centre of insect physiology and ecology (icipe), Nairobi, Kenya
and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development
(CIRAD). He conducted a research work based on the behavior, ecology & control of legume flower
thrips, megalurothrips
sjostedti (trybom) in cowpeas (vigna unguiculata l.
walp) towards the development of an integrated pest
management program in Kenya, with the aim of finding alternative pest
management strategy which has less effect on people, livestock and the
environment. The research leaded to the identification repellent plant extracts
which can be used for pest management strategy in legume cropping system.

Andnet published relevant papers
during this period contributing to the generation of knowledge about integrated
pest management:

“Farmers knowledge and perception of
grain legume pest and their management in the eastern province of Kenya”which investigates how farmers identify
important grain legume pests and how they are controlling them, the cultural
practices practiced by the farmer and other challenges which influence
production of grain legumes.

“Ecological Niche Modeling to Predict effect of Climate
Change on the geographic distribution of the Cowpea pest legume flower Thrips(Megalurothrips sjostedti)(Thysanoptera: Thripidae) In
Africa” Climate, especially
temperature has a strong and direct effect on insect development, reproduction,
survival and colonization success of insect species. In a climate change
scenario, techniques developed to detect areas of climatic favorability. Those
models used in species distribution models are considered to represent useful
approach for detecting suitable areas of colonization and establishment of a
species. Thus, he investigates present and future potential distribution of the
legume flower thrips and its favorable host crop cowpea in Africa.

“Toxic and behavioral effects of 16
compounds against Megalurothrips sjostedti larvae (Thysanoptera:
Thripidae)” The larval stage causes more direct
feeding damage on epidermal and sub-epidermal plant tissues, causing
destruction of buds, flowers and malformations of pods. Sixteen constituents of
different plant extracts were tested for their effect on the feeding activity,
toxicity and behavioral effects on the second instar larvae of legume flower thrips, Megalurothrips sjostedti
(Thysanoptera: Thripidae).

After finishing his defence Andnet said “I am extremely
happy to have successfully completed my Study! Being a father of Triplets at
the last year of my study was a very difficult moment on handling academics and
family matter. I Thank the Almighty God for his Blessings! Special Thanks to my
supervisors for their outstanding supervision, follow-up and constructive
criticism during my study period. I thank friends and families for their
unreserved support until the final point”.

For Andnet, his participation in
the Agtrain programme have changed his life: “The Agtrain program
helped me a lot that provided me a world class academic knowledge and experience
with an opportunity of meeting scholars across the globe and sharing
experience. The programme also enriched my social skill and had a great place
in my life with unforgettable moments and experience. Thanks Agtrain”.

Friday, 24 April 2015

The phenomenon of
business incubators is remarkably expanding worldwide particularly in
developing countries located in Africa. Research on agri-business incubators in
Africa may help us to better understand what factors can contribute to the
success of agribusiness firms. At the same time, more investigation can
contribute to know what makes effective an incubation process.

Public, private and
academic institutions are focusing on business incubators as they have seen the
potential benefits that incubation programs have to assist entrepreneurs in
creating innovative products. The benefits of an incubation program mainly
focus on three levels: infrastructure (office services), counseling (business
support such as training), and networking.

Benefits of an incubation program help
entrepreneurs to overcome issues such as information asymmetries, competitive
advantage, resource shortages, price disadvantage among others. Therefore, entrepreneurs overcoming these
issues can improve their businesses; reduce risks; and increase survival
possibilities. Additionally, business incubators can contribute to the local
development of an area by helping start-ups in the development of their
businesses. Then, benefits of business incubators can also have implications in
the economic growth of a locality.

Currently, I am doing
a research related to agri-business incubators in East Africa. These business
incubators intend to enhance the commercialization of agribusiness products by
adding value, innovation, and new technologies in the production process. Most
of these business incubators target start-ups in rural areas of Kenya and
Uganda. My main reason to explore more about this phenomenon is to find
contributions at the firm level to enhance performance and consequently
influence on the economic growth of rural areas in East Africa.

In general, more research
in this field can help us to better understand the effective performance of
business incubators located in developing countries, thus, being effective
mechanisms to the development of agribusiness firms.

Friday, 13 February 2015

Your morning coffee has the power to wake you
up, make you more productive and get you through that first meeting of the day.
But does it have the power to change the lives of the people who produced it?

Colombian,
Costa Rican, Ethiopian, Jamaican Blue Mountain. There are a lot of choices that
you make when deciding which type of coffee to buy. In recent years even more
choices have become available- Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certified,
CAFÉ Practices, organic. These are sustainable coffee certifications that you
may have seen indicated in the form of a little stamp on your bag of coffee.
These certifications indicate to the consumer that the coffee was produced in a
certain way—without the use of conventional chemicals in the case of organic,
in a way that preserves biodiversity in the case of Rainforest Alliance, or in
a manner that supports cooperatives of small farmer in the case of Fairtrade.
In some cases the farmer is paid a premium to incentivize these changes.

Coffee is commodity and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The world price of coffee varies with the world supply. Droughts in Brazil, coffee rust in Guatemala, increasing production in Vietnam and conflict in Africa can all affect the price that we pay for our morning cup of coffee. It’s easy to imagine how low prices can be devastating coffee farmers, who may go into debt or respond by seeking other employment and neglecting their coffee crops. Improper management can cause disease to quickly spread, lower yields, cause an undersupply on the world market and a subsequent rise in prices.It may be surprising to think that
artificially high prices can cause problems for coffee farmers as well. High
world coffee prices can mean that farmers over invest in coffee production,
bringing new areas into cultivation, becoming overly dependent on an unstable
commodity and ultimately causing an oversupply and a repeat of the cycle.

I was
curious to know if sustainable coffee certifications could alleviate some of
this fluctuation and lend a little more financial stability to the life of a
coffee farmer. By surveying all of the
Costa Rican coffee cooperatives which participate in sustainable coffee
certifications, I found that some certifications seem to help protect farmers
from the lowest prices. Fairtrade in particular, because it offers a minimum
price to farmers, can even out the price fluctuations by mitigating market lows
without augmenting market highs. Rainforest Alliance, Utz and organic
certification can also help to some extent, since farmers tend to sell their
crops with certification when the market is low, benefiting from the
certification premium, and selling their crop to conventional (uncertified)
markets when the price is high, possibly avoiding the costly audits that come
with certification.

However, the benefits are limited because of
the small amount of coffee that is sold under certification relative to the
amount that is verified that it was produced in a standard-compliant manner. In
other words, the global supply of certified coffee far outweighs the demand. In
2012 3,300,000 metric tons of certification-compliant coffee were produced but
only 840,000 MTs were sold as such, making the supply nearly four times the
demand. But the demand for certified coffee has been growing every year, and as
consumers begin to demand certified coffee, more farmers will benefit.

This blog will serve as meeting point for all the media and information generated by AgTraIn. Besides, we will publish periodically relevant content about the scientific fields of the programme. Innovations, climate change, agroecology, smallholder farming systems, livelihoods, are only some of the labels you will find in our posts, written by our PhD students, researchers and experts.

We hope you enjoy our blog as much as we enjoy writing about our work!